Oh Hey Friendly Universe! Can you please introduce yourselves and give us some insight into what you do?

Hi! We are Derek (creative director) and Caitlin (brand director). We are a brand new eyewear startup in Vancouver! We are building a unique eyewear brand of sunglasses and glasses (prescription, blue-light, etc) that we are selling online (for now)! Our exclusive preview collection of three made in Italy and California frames is now available, with our full collection launching this fall!

How is Friendly Universe different than other eyewear e-commerce stores?

We are standing out in a few big ways! We put heart and soul into everything we make and all of our brand decisions, which we hope shines through to our customers. We work really hard to make the most amazing, beautiful quality product possible, and we are honest and open about everything we do. We are also focussing on giving back to causes that matter to us, and have some pretty ambitious ethical and sustainability goals we are working towards - more details on that coming with our full launch! - Caitlin

Why is having a more human approach to your brand important?

A human touch is important for several reasons. First off, being an online retailer you want you want to be able to relate to your customer. Not having a brick and mortar store, you have to convey the ethos of the brand in every other possible way. Secondly, it's just who we are. As much as we love those glossy fashion brands, sometimes it can also feel a bit alienating. Life isn't always that perfect. For us in Friendly Universe, we want to celebrate people and life in all its facets. - Derek

How do you integrate compelling visuals into your campaigns?

Both Caitlin and I are really passionate about visuals and so it's something we kind of geek about with each other. Always thinking of new and fresh concepts to hopefully surprise and delight our customer. - Derek

“Even though you might feel you have limited resources, it doesn’t mean that you have limited creativity” - Derek Desierto

It's quite a mix, really. During a campaign, not only are we both art directing the shoot but we're also taking some behind the scenes content. Sometimes it's on the fly and we can think of an idea during the day and shoot something right there and then. Also, it depends on what we're shooting for. We really love Insta Stories right now because we feel it a cool behind the scenes on what it takes to create a brand from the ground up which has been a lot of fun for us to share. - Derek

What is your favorite social media platform to share on and why?

We are both in love with Instagram for work and personal use! We love the ease of sharing and connection that Instagram has, and how we are able to build community! It’s so refreshing how many Instagram users are moving away from perfect, polished content, to more fun, relaxed and real sharing. We are aiming to have that real heart and joy come through in everything that we share on social. - Caitlin

Why did you Download Life Lapse?

Truthfully, it's because we love you (Sarah) and wanted to support you! But after using it a few times, we actually genuinely fell in love with the app. It's so simple to use and the output looks so fun and amazing! - Derek

What do you use it for?

We so far have used it to make fun product focussed videos for Instagram stories and feed (including sponsored posts). We like making videos directly within the app (we did a little shoot with all of our frames recently that turned out so well), or uploading images taken for our campaigns to create little GIF like videos. - Caitlin

Do you find the app easy to use?

We find it extremely easy to use! Neither of us are very tech savvy and it was seamless for both of us. - Caitlin

What do you love most about Life Lapse?

How easy and fun it is to use! A startup like us has a very limited budget for content creation, as we are putting all our funds towards incredible product and customer experience. We also have limited time and resources and are always working on a million different things. The fact that in 10 minutes or less we can create a beautiful, high quality, very fun piece of content to share is completely life-changing! - Caitlin

How did uploading a Life Lapse Video impact your engagement?

In the last few months 3 of the 4 Life Lapse videos we uploaded are in our top 9 posts for engagement! They really resonate with our audience and help us convey our playful yet elevated aesthetic. - Caitlin

For anybody else reading this in marketing/ content creation, why would you recommend them to download Life Lapse?

For exactly the reasons I mentioned above - an effortless (and fun) way to create engaging, unique content that stands out and connects to your audience, without fancy expensive equipment and shoots. - Caitlin